Travis and I had a magically different afternoon. We don’t exactly live anywhere near a forest trail, but that didn’t stop us from going to our town’s Village Green and searching for “treasures.” Once back home, we turned our treasures trove into an unconventional canvas for painting!

I didn’t even have to explain to Travis what we were doing. He saw the paints and brushes and began eagerly painting a leaf.

His favorite by far was a large stick we found. First, he painted it blue, making sure he got all the way to the edges:

He was quite serious as he worked, and once finished with the blue, he dipped his brush in all the different paint colors and turned his stick into a “rainbow.”

This project was a delight, especially because painting on the various textures felt so different from flat paper – especially the bumpy pinecone! I confess I joined in just for the fun of it.